The use of knowledge management in small firms: an explorative research

Knowledge Management (KM) is considered an important ingredient of innovative efforts of modern companies. Nevertheless, the benefits of KM have not been fully exploited by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The main aim of this paper is to explore KM practices in a network high-tech SMEs located in the Naples city area. The results of the questionnaire survey indicate that majority of the surveyed firms use knowledge management systems (KMSs) and tools relatively simple producing benefits mainly in the area of operational management. The most critical barrier concerns the protection of company's information. KM is a critical area for business managers in the today competitive environment but there is a general consensus about the fact that the benefits of KM have not been fully exploited by SMEs. This is reflected in the large number of papers describing the use of KM in large companies while little conceptual and empirical studies have been conducted on KM in SMEs. The main aim of this paper is to explore the adoption of KM practices and influencing factors in small firms. A two-stage methodology has been implemented to achieve this objective. In the first stage, a systematic literature review has been carried to analyse the state-of-the-art of KM practices in small firms in order to identify research gaps. As result of this phase two research questions have been formulated. In the second stage, a questionnaire survey has been conducted to provide answers to those research questions. The field investigation has been carried out in a network of high-tech SMEs located in the area of Naples City (Italy) through the administration of a questionnaire. The preliminary findings highlight the following key points: - the surveyed companies show significant KM needs, but they mainly adopt internal KMSs; - the tools used for KMSs implementation are simple and un-updated in some cases, while more sophisticated and interactive tools (e.g. wiki, cloud computing, crowd sourcing and tag filtering) are used to a lower extent; - the main benefits associated with the use of KMSs are in the operational and quality management area. The less important benefit relates to knowledge sharing with partner; - the protection of critical information and integration with existing processes are viewed as the most relevant barriers. The less important barrier relate to the lack of management support.